Trying to expand RL and attract more supporters so BBC put in front of camera a bloke who can hardly speak and a bust up player with a broken nose and 2 black eyes. Which idiot signed that one off? Not exactly the look your after if your wanting new followers and then there was the "game". Turned it off when the big nugget got 10 minutes for gobbing off to the ref, it'd got embarrassing by then. RFL need to have a serious look at itself before it's too late. Marketing is needed, just look at Rugby Union and how they've massively increased participation at both playing and support level. It's definitely something that needs addressing and quickly.

Trying to expand RL and attract more supporters so BBC put in front of camera a bloke who can hardly speak and a bust up player with a broken nose and 2 black eyes. Which idiot signed that one off? Not exactly the look your after if your wanting new followers and then there was the "game". Turned it off when the big nugget got 10 minutes for gobbing off to the ref, it'd got embarrassing by then. RFL need to have a serious look at itself before it's too late. Marketing is needed, just look at Rugby Union and how they've massively increased participation at both playing and support level. It's definitely something that needs addressing and quickly.

Grandad

Would imagine that the deal was made before the two black eyes developed! But yeah- never understood why peacock and JJB are on the telly when they can barely string a coherent sentence together- it’s like listening to porky pig and sylvester!

Trying to expand RL and attract more supporters so BBC put in front of camera a bloke who can hardly speak and a bust up player with a broken nose and 2 black eyes. Which idiot signed that one off? Not exactly the look your after if your wanting new followers and then there was the "game". Turned it off when the big nugget got 10 minutes for gobbing off to the ref, it'd got embarrassing by then. RFL need to have a serious look at itself before it's too late. Marketing is needed, just look at Rugby Union and how they've massively increased participation at both playing and support level. It's definitely something that needs addressing and quickly.

Grandad

Interesting post and food for thought regards marketing, Personally i don't think there is anyone at the RFL that's capable of taking the game forward, in fact it seems to be going backwards.

I can see one of two things happening, The game will take off across the Atlantic and League will continue on it's downward slide over here , or Union which goes from strength to strength will finally bury league as a pro sport " something it's been trying to do since the breakaway .

Whatever you think about Union they certainly know how to run their sport, I don't bother much about stat's as a rule, but i'm told the Premier Union clubs now get bigger crowds than the top S league clubs. don't know if it's true but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

Whatever you think about Union they certainly know how to run their sport, I don't bother much about stat's as a rule, but i'm told the Premier Union clubs now get bigger crowds than the top S league clubs. don't know if it's true but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

The vast majority of Premiership teams now average over 10,000 (and it's not unheard of for Yorkshire 1 games to attract 500-1000).

But when you watch RU now, they have a decent product to sell. No longer is it 'kick and clap'. Some games can average less kicks in open play than RL and they constantly update their laws to make the game palatable.

The RFL don't seem to learn anything from this and the game is now becoming almost unwatchable (in my view). For the first time in forever, I'm really not bothered if I miss a Giants game and don't watch any other games on Sky. I'm even contemplating cancelling and paying for BT Sport next season for the RU

One area of the RU game which is vastly better than RL is the standard of the referees. Players and team's play the ref in both codes but because the refs are so poor in RL they seem to get mouthed off at much more than any ref I've seen in RU. Our refs seem to get the most simple of calls wrong on very regular occasions which is disappointing on every level even with video technology, if your lucky enough to be on Sky, they still get plenty of calls wrong. Also League highlight's on BBC, great, but at 1150pm? Union on channel 5 prime time 7pm proving that TV exec's think that RU is more attractive to their customers. We need a huge shake up and quickly or we'll be left way way way behind.

One area of the RU game which is vastly better than RL is the standard of the referees. Players and team's play the ref in both codes but because the refs are so poor in RL they seem to get mouthed off at much more than any ref I've seen in RU. Our refs seem to get the most simple of calls wrong on very regular occasions which is disappointing on every level even with video technology, if your lucky enough to be on Sky, they still get plenty of calls wrong. Also League highlight's on BBC, great, but at 1150pm? Union on channel 5 prime time 7pm proving that TV exec's think that RU is more attractive to their customers. We need a huge shake up and quickly or we'll be left way way way behind.

Grandad

Agree with just about all of that, I reckon that if League doesn't take off over there it doesn't have long left as a pro sport, except down under. Union is put over so much better on TV than league, League has no International game worth talking about anymore, As you say Union ref's are different class to League and that is reflected everywhere in the game.

I think half the problem is we don't have any true stars anymore, Where are the Neil Fox's, Meninga's Newlove's Gary Connely's Hardesty's and Millwards and countless others, As soon as anyone gets even close to their class, Union hoovers them up, It used to be the other way round with true legends like Lewis Jones and David Watkins coming our way regularly.

For me Danril called it right a couple of weeks ago when he said The game is crap, the ref's are crap and worse still we are crap," or words to that effect " so it's no wonder Union is grinding us down.

It's a possibility the game will do well in Canada and USA but i think it would be a bit different to what we are used too, They tend to like their sports with a lot of action and aggression , Grid iron and Ice Hockey style , I think they would probably change a lot of the rules. I'm not a big fan of either of those sports myself, Ice Hockey is too end to end for me and grid iron is a bit too repetitive , That said league now is mostly 5 head down plods and a kick. Hey Ho i shall watch it as long as i can in the hope it will get back to something like it used to be before it disappears, but i won't be holding my breath

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